This past November, my wife and I celebrated 25 years of magic. Scratch that — we celebrated 25 years of magic and Master Swords, with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

You see, we’re gamers and have been since the early days of Nintendo — owning every generation of Nintendo game console, from the NES to the Wii and 3DS. The long-lasting Zelda franchise is our favourite, along with our daughters, who dressed up as Link and Princess Zelda for Halloween.

That’s why we were delighted to recently discover Power-Up Games & Toys, a family friendly Nintendo-themed store carrying everything from curtains and bedding to clothing and backpacks.

“From a business standpoint, it made sense to go with Nintendo because it’s multi-generational,” said Jeff Jankowski, owner of Power-Up Games & Toys in the St. Jacobs Outlet Mall. “Nintendo is always gaining new fans with kids now experiencing the Wii and DS, while generations before are nostalgic for the N64 or GameCube.”

Walking into Jankowski’s bright, colourful store is a fun experience for the family, as my daughters gazed at walls lined with Super Mario Bros., Skylanders and Pokemon toys, along with imported Zelda accessories like wallets and belt buckles.

“We see Zelda fans here all the time, and that wasn’t something I anticipated,” said Jankowski, while an orchestra soundtrack of Zelda music played quietly in the background.

“I was amazed by the amount of young women who are into Legend of Zelda. I can see now how it appeals to every different age group. The game has so many great elements to it, from puzzles and great characters to really in-depth stories of good versus evil in the setting of Hyrule kingdom.”

Jankowski continued, “People come in all the time and tell me they’ve beaten the game 10, 12 times!”

I told Jankowski how much I appreciated his store being family-friendly, choosing not to stock the more violent games like Call of Duty and Resident Evil.

“By not having the really gory games, it helped streamline the store as we’re hoping to establish ourselves with a family presence,” said Jankowski. “That way, a family can come in and know it’s safe to pick anything from our wall of games.”

Nintendo is committed to producing hard goods like consoles and games as opposed to virtual goods for mobile devices, Jankowski told me.

“Nintendo isn’t going anywhere,” he said. “Once Microsoft (Xbox) has their way — their whole plan is to go download — they won’t have any hard goods to sell at retail stores. Their next system won’t have games on the wall, because everything will be online.”

I told Jankowski I had recently read about the Wii U, Nintendo’s successor to the Wii, to be released later this year.

“It’s going to be their HD console, and it’s going to be the most powerful system on the market in terms of specs, graphics and capabilities,” he said. “The new controller will be like a tablet, with touch screen, so they’re basically combining the technology of a Wii and DS.”

Any word on the development of a new Zelda game for the Wii U, I asked Jankowski. “Yes — I know there are already some images showing up for an HD Zelda game,” he said.

Here’s to another 25 years of magic — and Master Swords!

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Marshall Ward is a visual artist and freelance writer. Email is welcome at marshall_ward@hotmail.com.